After Carolina Panthers General Manager Marty Hurney confirmed Wednesday that defensive backs coach Curtis Fuller had resigned, Coach Ron Rivera could only offer the vaguest of explanations.
“It’s a complicated situation,” he told the Charlotte Observer, telling a reporter from the paper that he should talk to Fuller himself.
The Panthers shed a little more light on the situation Friday.
“After approaching Coach Fuller with the findings of an investigation into complaints of inappropriate conduct, we accepted his resignation,” team spokesman Steven Drummond said in a statement. “The Panthers are deeply committed to ensuring a safe, comfortable and diverse work environment where all individuals, regardless of sex, race, color, religion, gender, or sexual identity or orientation, are treated fairly and equally.”
According to ESPN’s David Newton, the inappropriate conduct was toward women.
Fuller’s resignation was only the latest bit of unsavory news about the franchise. Panthers owner Jerry Richardson has been accused by at least four former team employees of making inappropriate sexual and racial remarks toward them. Last month, Sports Illustrated published letters written by one of those former employees — a woman — to the NFL, Rivera, Richardson and others. She called the league’s investigation into Richardson’s conduct “a farce” and criticized Rivera for being “insensitive” and an “enabler.”
“I didn’t know what to do when you called me to your stadium suite in the middle of the week so you could take off my shoes, place my legs in your lap and rub their entire length, from toes to crotch,” the woman wrote in the letter to Richardson (Sports Illustrated says all of the letters were fact-checked before publication). “I didn’t know what to do when you asked me to turn around so you could see how my jeans looked. I didn’t know what to do when you brushed my breasts to put my seat belt around me in the front seat of your car. I didn’t know what to do when you put your hands on my mouth, for me to kiss them. I didn’t know what to do when you asked me uncomfortable, sexually charged questions.
“I didn’t know what to do. So, I did what you told me to do.”
In response, the Panthers said they could not comment on the woman’s specific allegations because of pending legal issues but highlighted the moves they have made to create “an environment in which our staff can feel proud to work.”
After Sports Illustrated broke the Richardson story in December, Richardson announced he would be selling the team.
More from The Post: